Review

As if this show couldn't turn any more bizarre, a possessed Lafayette subdues Sookie and forces her to change into a white dress as Sookie is to be the maid of honour at Maryann's wedding to her horned god. Sookie is less than impressed with Maryann wearing her Grandmother's wedding dress. Once again, and to ensure we know this will be important next season, Maryann demonstrates that she can't possess Sookie, meaning our Gal is something more than human.

In other Bon Temps developments, Hoyt is still having women problems, Jason and Andy arrive at the Stackhouse property and wade in to save the town, immediately becoming possessed themselves, Bill and a reluctant Sam devise a strategy to defeat Maryann, and Eric learns that not only does the Vampire Queen love to play yahtzee to 5 million but she wants him to take care of Bill due to Bill knowing about the V scam. With Sookie going ballistic at the wedding of the decade things reach a melting point.

Besides finishing the story arcs from this season Beyond Here Lies Nothin' is setting up some serious issues to address in season three. Jason has shoot someone to defend Andy and Andy is taking the blame to defend Jason, that's going to bite them in the arse in due course. Vampire Bill has been whisked away by someone or something, could Eric have something to do with this considering the Vampire Queen's threat. Just what are Hoyt and Jessica going to do about their relationship, considering Hoyt's mother and Jessica draining truckers. Who or what are Sam's biological parents, and why is he being warned away from them. And exactly what is Sookie if she isn't entirely human? The final episode of season two does the business and makes it a long wait for season three to arrive with some answers and resolutions to the questions raised.

As expected we finally got to the confrontation between the forces of order in Bon Temps and Maryann's insane wedding plans. Surprisingly the forces of order turn out to be entirely non-human as various other plans fall to pieces in the face of maenad magic. Vampire Bill and the shape shifting Sam have a devilishly clever plan that relies on Sookie being able to withstand Maryann's influence. Well you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs and in this case that would be ostrich eggs. But enough without hitting spoilers, watch the episode to see what Bill and Sam have concocted between them.

A disappointing end to a season that built on the first one, expected more from the last episode.

While the final episode certainly does have it's comedic dial set to high, Jason and Andy are a hoot, Lafayette can't avoid the camp element even while possessed, and Jane Bodehouse always gets extra pickles from Sookie, there's definitely a slice of the nasty going down that should appeal to the gorehounds who might not have previously dialled in. Besides the normal fang exercises in blood letting, and the odd additional damage, Sam goes heart to heart with Maryann in a scene that rivals anything yet shown in two seasons of True Blood in terms of gore. As stated previously in this guide, True Blood on occasion will get down into the blood soaked trenches and wallowing around in the visceral. If this be the food of the gods then eat on, I guess.

Surprisingly the final episode of season two wasn't quite as good as I was expecting, yes I was disappointed, with Director Michael Cuesta simply throwing on an average television episode rather than trying to break out and do something outlandishly good. Cuesta simply can't get beyond the small screen mentality, leaving us with an episode in Beyond Here Lies Nothin' that could conceivably be the worse of the season. Sorry to be blunt here, but given an above average script by Alexander Woo we could have expected something a whole lot better. Actually the episode is fine television, but the bar has been raised so high by previous Directors that anything short of amazing disappears into mediocre pretty damn quickly. Perhaps there were a few too many plot arcs flying around for Cuesta to get comfortable with the episode? Anyways slight disappointment on nothing sensational landing on our plates.

Guess I haven't been discussing the acting being delivered in this show for quite sometime due to various other aspects needing attention. Overall we're talking a high calibre throughout the season, with the leads and secondary characters all being well realised, and notably no clangers being delivered by the supporting cast. On that subject, anyone else think Hadley Hale is going to receive a lot more screen time in season three? My pick for the current minor characters who will take a more central role in season three.

Confirmed: Additional Downunder Actors are in the cast for season three!

Actually that's about all I've got to say about this episode surprisingly, great final confrontation between Maryann and our Scooby gang that certainly lived up to the season long build up, tempered by a final episode that didn't live up to expectations of outstanding Television. On the bright side of the fang certainly plenty to look forward to in season three.

Season Two of True Blood saw a growth in viewer numbers in 2009, total 51.39 million average 4.28 compared to 22.13 average 1.84 for season one, with episode ten New World In My View setting a franchise record of 5.33 million viewers. Please note all figures are for North America. Clearly with those sorts of growth rates HBO were always going to greenlight a third season.

Okay that's it for ScaryMinds on season two, though I note that season three is already here in the review queue. Does it ever stop?